May I have this dance?

I came across this video not long after we got engaged. The couple, obviously pros in the swing [dancing] circuit, is dancing the Lindy Hop. EPIC first dance if you ask me.

Oh how this makes me miss dancing. After taking my first ballroom class in college at the urging of a friend, I was hooked. I took every class possible (and some twice). When I was away from school during my internships, I would take group lessons at local dance studios. Somewhere along the lines, I got it in my head that I wanted to dance competitively in Dance Sport. It took seven years of dancing and thousands of dollars spent on workshops, group and private lessons to learn that I have a nasty case of stage fright. I still love dancing, just not when the spot lot on me. Hmmm, this is going to make our first dance interesting.

Many years ago, I thought that I would dance something fierce at my wedding. Unfortunately for me (fortunately for Jake), we won't be doing the Lindy for our first dance. BUT. Yes, there's a but. We won't disappoint. Jake came out of his "cave" (aka office) one day, took my hand, and proceeded to show me a few steps of my favorite dance he had learned from online videos. Can you say "aaaaawwwwwwwwww"?

Random Fact: I took a Lindy Hop workshop from Frankie Manning himself!

Save Our Date! (Round 1)

Hello Family and Friends -

We're getting married!

Since you live west of the Mississippi and we understand what a haul it is to come to Massachusetts, we wanted to give you ample time to start planning (and saving). This will be a great way to visit Boston if you have not had the chance yet. And for those of you that grew up in the area, you can hit two birds with one stone and visit family, too.

We would love for you to be present for the festivities, but we understand if you cannot make it for whatever reason. Please, do not feel obligated by any means.

More information to come. We look forward to celebrating with you (in ~14 months)!

-Celia and Jake

(Photo taken by Jake's Dad and edited by Celia.)

Impromptu Vacation - Ogunquit, ME: Epilogue

Our vacation is pretty much over at this point, but we do have one last adventure to share with y'all. We will forever refer to it as the I'm a medium! story.

While we were at the outlets, Jake had picked up some new shirts for golfing from the Nike store. Channeling the stereotypical guy, he picked out a couple of shirts and a pair of shorts that are size M. "I'm a medium, it's fine, I don't need to try them on, they'll fit."

Back at the hotel, he decides to show me his new wardrobe. We quickly learn that Jake is not a medium. I remember saying at one point "You can fit a midget in there!" OK, so maybe I'm not very PC sometimes. Still, Jake insists that he is a medium. It's a good thing the outlets were on the way home ;)

I now walk around saying "I'm a medium" when I'm channeling Jake. If you can imagine Cartman from South Park, eyes shut tight, whiny voice, and un-enunciated words, that's what it sounds like when I say "I'm a me-ium!" I even have the closed eyes and head tilt!

Previously:
Wedding Crashers
Impromptu Vacation - Ogunquit, ME: Preface
Impromptu Vacation - Ogunquit, ME: Day 1
Impromptu Vacation - Ogunquit, ME: Day 2
Impromptu Vacation - Ogunquit, ME: Day 3

Impromptu Vacation - Ogunquit, ME: Day 3

There's a walking path along the water's edge in Ogunquit called Marginal Way. It's very similar to the Cliff Walk in Newport, RI. We caught ourselves calling it Cliff Walk a few times, oops. We went south by foot and headed back to Perkin's Cove. We loved the Lobster Shack so much that we went back for round two. The owner remembered us too! This time we went with the boiled lobsters. On the way to Perkin's, we ran into my coworker, Steve. He informed us that George Bush, Sr. was dining at Barnacle Billy's. We didn't see him, but we did walk right past the secret service guys in the parking lot.

After lunch we headed back to the main drag via Marginal Way, and wouldn't you know it, we ran into Steve for a second time. Remember Mau-Mau from the knick-knack shop? We hit up the ice cream shop next door. Jake picked up some Moose Tracks while I indulged in Black Raspberry ice cream. It turns out that black raspberries is a version of the blackberry. Neither one of us can really eat and walk at the same time. So we kind just hung out in front of the knick-knack shop. Of course, Jake found his cat friend and went in to pet it.

Before heading back to the hotel to rest, we made one last trip to the beach. We have a growing collection of sand from every beach that we visit: Aruba, St. Lucia, Oregon, and now Maine. While at the beach, we got to witness a beach wedding, as I previously blogged about here. On the way back to the Inn, we ran into Steve for a third time! How crazy is that?

We ended our last night at the beach with tapas at Gypsy Sweethearts. We ate everything before I even thought about taking pictures.

Previously:

Wedding Crashers

Impromptu Vacation - Ogunquit, Me: Preface

Impromptu Vacation - Ogunquit, Me: Day 1

Impromptu Vacation - Ogunquit, Me: Day 2

Impromptu Vacation - Ogunquit, ME: Day 2

Remember our outrageous 6 mile walk from the night before? When I woke up, I couldn't walk! I was basically hobbling around for the rest of the weekend. The running joke now is that Jake broke my foot.

Aside from having to gimp around, I woke up in time to see the sunrise. The plan for this day was to hit up the outlets. We figured that it would be less crowded than on Saturday or Sunday. We highly recommend this. We had to go back to the outlets to make an exchange on Sunday, and it was a complete and utter zoo.

Getting to the outlet was an adventure in and of itself. We took the scenic route to Kittery. It's literally just up the road on Route 1, but we ended up passing the outlets 2X before finally finding them. We have a GPS (we call him Jeeves). Jeeves is kind of old, he doesn't know the difference between a hard right and soft right, is a bit slow at times, and sometimes he just gets plain confused. The trick to using Jeeves is to be one step ahead of him, i.e. look at the map and see what's coming up before he announces it as you go past the turn. When Jake is in the car with me, I rely on him to do so. Sometimes things just don't happen the way we plan.

Once we found the outlets, it was game over. We spent the afternoon in JCrew, Calvin Klein, Crate and Barrel, Nike, and Aldo. Thank goodness the shops are all spread out and not really in walking distance. I had to gimp around the stores as it was. Once we exhausted our wallets, we headed back to Ogunquit. We were both starving, so I figured we'd stop by Stonewall Kitchen Cafe for a lobster (lobstah) roll . Stonewall's deli had other ideas; it closed at 3 and we showed up well after. A new plan was hatched: lobster rolls at the Lobster Shack in Perkin's Cove.We wrapped up dinner by taking a short walk (hobble) around Perkin's Cove before heading back to the Inn to hang out.

Sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean.

Lobstah roll (it was so unbelievably good).

Previously:
Wedding Crashers

Impromptu Vacation - Ogunquit, Me: Preface

Impromptu Vacation - Ogunquit, Me: Day 1